Halong bay. Nature miracle

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Halong bay. Nature miracle

Wonders of nature

A Vietnamese legend tells that once upon a time, a fiery dragon angered the Lord of Heaven with his atrocities. The celestial frowned menacingly and ordered the villain to be delivered to him. But the insidious monster decided to hide in the sea and wait until the divine anger subsides. The dragon chose a secluded bay and dived to the very bottom. However, the winged serpent was so huge that the bay did not contain it and the curves of its back protruded from the water. By these curves, the Lord of the Sky noticed the dragon. "You can't escape revenge, villain!" boomed his voice. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the dragon petrified forever. And the people gave the bay the name Halong, which means "where the dragon sank into the sea."

Indeed, the fantasy of nature has created a landscape in this most beautiful bay of the South China Sea that involuntarily evokes fairy-tale associations. The smooth bend of the coast of the Gulf of Tonkin formed a spacious water mirror, above the surface of which rises either a stone forest, or a mysterious labyrinth, or the ruins of an ancient fortress with towers and spiers, temples and palaces.

Halong Bay

Three thousand islands, islets and small rocks of various shapes and shapes rise steeply from the sea waters, like precious jade beads scattered on blue velvet. The nearby islands are curled with bright green caps of the forest, and the farther away, the more blue hue gives them an air haze.

Traveling by boat through the winding island labyrinth, you never get tired of being amazed at the skillful work of natural forces that created such a variety of stone curiosities, constantly changing their appearance as you approach them. Against the background of a surprisingly transparent horizon, bizarre cliffs and rocky ledges, similar to whimsical carvings made of ivory, grow and float past. This one resembles a giant's head, that one is a magic castle, the next one is a turtle, another one is a camel. And here is a whole family of some unseen animals, as if they came from Vietnamese legends and traditions...

Like a frozen stone fairy tale growing out of the water, the pristine beauty of Halong Bay appears before the traveler. The diverse forms of thousands of islets, sharp rocks, battlements and towers, sometimes rising up to 200 meters above the sea, provide endless food for the imagination, especially since the view of the bay changes depending on the time of day and the weather.

Hundreds of artists and poets, thousands of photographers from all over the world captured the fabulous Halong in their works. And geologists did not immediately give an answer to the question of how this miracle of nature was formed. It was once thought that the islands of the bay were carved by the sea or the wind, or both. Others even suggested that a giant meteorite fell into Halong Bay and scattered the earth's firmament into thousands of islands with a powerful blow. In fact, the reason for the emergence of unusual rocks was the dissolution of the limestones that make up the islands, rainwater, or, as scientists say, karst processes.

Tens of millennia ago, the area of the bay was not yet a seabed. Rain streams, so plentiful in a humid tropical climate, century after century, bit into limestone rocks, giving them fantastic outlines, washing out caves and grottoes in them.

Such a phenomenon, called tower karst by geologists, is also found in other places on our planet: in Madagascar, for example, or in southern China near the city of Guilin. But unlike them, the landscape of Halong seems to be drowned in water. Several thousand years ago, the coastal part of the Gulf of Tonkin began to sink. The sea was slowly but inexorably advancing on land, and the limestone towers and spiers were in the middle of a shallow bay. (The depths of Halong now do not exceed twenty meters.)

Since then, sea waves have been tirelessly working over the shores of the islands, deepening caves, carving ledges and grottoes, knocking out wave-cutting niches in their steep sides. Numerous underwater tunnels and caves of Halong are home to a variety of fish (there are more than a thousand species), crabs, squids and other marine animals. And on the wooded peaks of uninhabited islands expanse for birds.

Meanwhile, archaeologists claim that once the islands of Halong Bay were inhabited already at the beginning of the Stone Age. Scientists studying the Paleolithic of Southeast Asia even single out a special kind of culture of the Stone Age, which they called the "Halong culture".

Indeed, people have long settled in this fertile land. The main water artery of North Vietnam - Hongha ("Red River") plays the same role here as the Nile in Ancient Egypt. In summer, during the monsoon rains, it spreads widely, fertilizing the fields with its silt. And in winter and spring, the water subsides, and the peasants have time to harvest two crops of rice on the fertile floodplain lands. There are especially many fields in the vast delta of the Red River, where most of the silt from its muddy water settles.

After all, the river is not accidentally called Red - the water in it is indeed a thick brick-red color. Washing out the rocks in the mountains from which it runs to the sea, Hongha carries a huge amount of mineral particles. Not only the flooded shores, but also the South China Sea itself is painted with red turbidity during the flood for many kilometers in the area.

Located just north of the Red River Delta, Halong Bay is fenced off from human economic concerns with its enchanted stone forest, the tops of which rise above the surface of the sea. She seems to be sleeping peacefully, unaware of worries and unrest. And only in the evenings you can see how the multi-colored sails of graceful boats glide along the quiet mirror-like surface of its waters, illuminated by the oblique rays of the setting sun. It is the fishermen who have gone to sea before dawn with their catch. They spent the whole day in the straits and coves of the Halong island labyrinth, and now they are sailing home, to the shores of their fabulous bay.

Author: B.Wagner

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